Financial institutions, retail chains and consumers should play a part in encouraging sustainable corporate practices, the SIIA chairman Simon Tay told Channel NewsAsia on Talking Point.
“At the macro level, we can see that the traders and producers are starting to care (about sustainable practices). The banks of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have to start taking sustainability on board.
For the consumers, I think they have a critical part to play too. The European consumers are asking these questions and sometimes they are willing to pay a little more for a sustainable product.
Our local chains and supermarkets are now stocking organic products, but sustainability in the broader context – whether the produce are grown without contributing to haze and other climate change issues – is still much less a concern.
Let’s hope that in this spirit of taking consistent personal action, the consumers, the banks and supermarkets will start coming on board and really examine the question so that they can, in their own small ways, contribute to the overall solution of our environmental problems.”
